The brain is at risk of serious cerebrovascular insult during the 350,000 cardiopulmonary bypass surgeries performed annually in the USA. There is strong clinical evidence that over two-thirds of the patients exhibit neurologic or neuropsychologic postoperative deficits caused by emboli passing to the brain during surgery. Continuous wave Doppler ultrasound equipment can detect emboli, but can not provide for classification of emboli. A broadband pulse-echo ultrasound device can provide improved structural information. Artificial neural network and expert system technology can perform the broadband echo classification. ORINCON is uniquely qualified to develop this system because it has successfully applied similar technology to classification problems in biomedical diagnostics, underwater acoustics, and fault detection. Phase I research will demonstrate the feasibility of automated emboli classification. The ultimate goal of this proposal is the development of an accurate, low cost, real-time, automated ultrasonic, carotid monitoring system for use during surgery that can continuously detect and classify emboli. The proposed effort is collaborative, involving ORINCON Corporation, a leader int he application of intelligent systems technology to acoustic signal classification and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, a leader in emboli- related research. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION; Real-time automated detection and classification of emboli during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery will enable prompt intervention to eliminate the source of emboli or to administer therapeutic agents. It will also provide important data for relating postoperative deficits to types, sizes, and quantities of emboli. Our goal is to develop a low-cost (less then $25 thousand) unit with this capability, which has an immediate market consisting of the hundreds of surgical centers where CPB is performed.